Freshman shares experience with unique creature

By Erin O’Farrell

The wooden gate creaks open, and I peer through an opening, divided from the creature by half a door with rusted iron hinges. The padlock dangles from the chain. I can reach out and touch the animal.

It snorts, its nose flaring. It recognizes me. Its ears flap. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. Its eyes speak many things through the golden and hazel iris, and the intelligence within makes my stomach churn. I stare at it, and I see the muscles on its shoulder flinching despite its quiet, calm and knowing gaze.

I study the black stripes tracing across its head, branching out like the tributaries of a river, coursing across the rest of its body, contrasting tones of black against white.

I’ve only ever seen them on TV or through a fence from far away. Never had I been so close to them, and never had I understood the beauty of it. Looking at it then, its gaze holding mine, I had been practically forced to see and appreciate the complex simplicity of it. I was locked in a state of awe, only realizing within those few seconds how great the creature’s strength was, yet seeing the strength as so fragile. I was terrified that if I so much as took a breath, it would disappear.

Its tail flicks and a hoof drags across the paved floor. Its head turns, peering through an open doorway that leads to a world outside, yet a world still within an enclosure. It casts me one last sideways glance. I hold its gaze, yet the creature disappears before I can understand what happened, its racing steps kicking up dust.

Seeing this creature on TV never allowed me to grasp it as I did then. Watching a herd of them sprint across a screen, their hooves pounding against the ground, never shook me to the core or reverberated through my every bone like it did in person when I was only a couple feet away.

Before I could get a final glance of the creature, the doorway slams shut, leaving it outside and me inside, mesmerized, staring over a wooden gate. A tap on my shoulder shakes me free of the hypnosis, and I open the gate, grab a hose, and begin washing the paved flooring, my minds eye still watching the zebra with its image trapped in my thoughts.

Freshman Madison Kannapel has fun in art class

Freshman Madison Kannapel cuts out her stencil project in art. Photo by Jenna Elsby.

Madison Kaiser shoots a free throw at scrimmage game

Junior Madison Kaiser shoots a free throw at a scrimmage game against New Albany.
photo by Megan Siltz

 

 

 

 

The lost city of Angkor Wat

A hallway facing the mope surrounding Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. The walls are decorated with history of what had taken place many centuries ago. Every night, the women of Angkor City would dance through the hallways of the palace while King Jayavarman II had his ceremonies. Photo by Nika Chin.

Scripture carved into the walls of the outer hallway walls of Angkor Wat. The stories reads piece tells a story about the first battle of Angkor when enemies attacked. The Angkor people were equipped with horses and armor. Photo by Nika Chin.

‘This Is Our Turn’

We chose to do This Is Our Turn because it’s our turn at high school. The road shows a turn in the road to symbolize the turn. On our back cover we would make the road continue on with the same green background.

Yearbook cover “This is it”

By Kesley Moorefield and Alex Jamison

The theme for our 2013-14 yearbook was “This is it”. We believe our theme represented FCHS by strongly stating exactly who we are. We are a strong  class with a wide variety of individuals. The front cover is black and white checkered board in order to resemble a starting line similar to being in a race. The back cover is black and white checkered board as well with the word finish instead. The glitter words in gold and green signify the over all fact that we stand out when it comes to life. This theme has a repeating image of a black and white checkered line at the bottom of pages throughout the yearbook as well and green and yellow stars to signify us standing out as a school.

Yearbook Cover “Let’s Talk About”

By Sydney Sears and Claire Watkins

Our yearbook theme is “Let’s Talk About.” We chose this theme because it displays what a lot of high school is about; communication. It also represents what a yearbook is supposed to do, which is allow people to talk about and reminisce about the past year. Our color scheme decisions were based on the thought that we believe white would stand out because white is not often used, and the blue and purple are a nice contrast and add a nice pop against the white.

More than just tape

This yearbook cover was inspired by duct tape. The colors represent our school colors. The black lines are going to represent strips of duct tape. The logo “Sticking to Our Future,” was created upon the idea of the job of duct tape in keeping things together.

The reasoning behind putting the question,” Have you stuck?” on the back was to make students contemplate about their high school career.

Ugly sweaters capture attention

By Jenny North and Claire Watkins

Christmas time, ah. Filled with cookies, trees, presents, happiness, and well, ugly sweaters. Dig into the back of Grandma’s closet, see what you find. Maybe you have some from past Christmases. Don’t worry about the smell of mothballs it’ll go away, well maybe, probably not, but who cares? It’s Christmas! Prepare for ugly sweater mania, everyone is wearing one. Please enjoy the few we have riled up for you.

“It looks like someone chewed up a bag of skittles and spit them onto my sweater.”
Freshman Jody Jansa

“My mom has had this sweater since 1997.”
Freshman Connor Lopp

“My sweater is embarrassing.”
Junior Julie Ulmer

“I would wear this to a pajama party.”
Freshman Megan Johnson

“I was going for the sad and despairing look.”
Sophomore Spencer Day

“This is a pimp sweater.”
Senior Cylie Miller

 

Marching band comes to a bittersweet ending

Band director Harold Yankey reminisces about the band year with the audience. “It’s nice to get over that hurdle of four years and this was just a solid band year,” said Yankey.

Senior Brian Young looks for someone as band students file in for the banquet. “I’m glad it ended the way it did. It ended on a high note,” said Young. Music director Phil Thomas takes his place at the podium to finish out the banquet. “I’m very proud of the band and it’s because of them we went for an unprecedented fourth year

All good things must come to an end, as does this beautiful banquet. ” I’m very proud of you guys, you’re very energizing, and it’s just joyful,(to work with the band),”said band booster Bobbi Harbeson.

Senior Michael Pepin and freshman Jonathan Blaylock dig in to the huge dessert spread”Even though I came in late I was still able to catch up with everyone. I enjoyed meeting new people and I’ve got three more years since I’m not a senior,” said Blaylock.

Photos and captions by Garland Noel.